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Content Marketing in the UK:
2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends
OVERVIEW: THE STATE OF CONTENT MARKETING IN THE UK
Hello Marketers!
Welcome to Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends.
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and the Direct Marketing Association UK (DMA) are pleased to present this premier study of content
marketing in the UK. Whilst the primary focus of this report is on the UK, you’ll note some interesting comparisons with North America and
Australia throughout.
Here are some of the key findings the research has uncovered:
 94% of marketers in the UK have adopted content marketing.
 On average, UK marketers use 13 content marketing tactics, whilst their North American and Australian peers use 12. They also have
the highest adoption rate for the most popular tactics: “articles on your website,” “social media (other than blogs),” and “eNewsletters.”
 UK marketers are investing more in content marketing than their international peers: 64% plan to increase their content marketing
spend over the next 12 months. Even the UK marketers that rate their efforts as least effective plan to make significant investments in
content marketing.
As you delve into the research, you will see that UK B2B and B2C marketers deal with content differently. B2C marketers use a greater
number of tactics – particularly mobile – and outsource content creation more frequently. On the other hand, B2B marketers allocate more
budget to content marketing and tailor their content more frequently.
Overall, UK marketers rank themselves higher in terms of content marketing effectiveness than their North American and Australian peers
do – a sure sign of growing confidence.
On with the content marketing revolution!
Joe Pulizzi
Founder
Content Marketing Institute
2
Chris Combemale
Executive Director
Direct Marketing Association UK
OVERVIEW
94% of UK marketers use content marketing.
Percentage of UK Respondents
Using Content Marketing
6%
do not
use content
marketing
94%
use content
marketing
Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Trends –
Content Marketing Institute/Direct Marketing Association UK
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 97% of UK B2C marketers are using
content marketing, versus 95% of their
B2B peers.
 More UK B2C marketers (97%) use
content marketing compared with their
B2C peers in North America (86%) and
Australia (89%).
 More UK B2B marketers (95%) use
content marketing compared with their
B2B peers in North America (91%);
however, fewer use it when compared
with their Australian B2B peers (98%).
CONTENT MARKETING BY TACTIC
UK marketers use an average of
13 content marketing tactics.
Number of Tactics UK Marketers Use
 Overall, UK marketers use a greater
22%
16-19 Tactics
13-15 Tactics
16%
10-12 Tactics
16%
 UK B2C marketers use more tactics (14)
26%
5-9 Tactics
1-4 Tactics
number of tactics than their North
American and Australian peers – who
use an average of 12 tactics – do.
12%
20+ Tactics
6%
0
than their B2B peers (12) do.
Average: 13
10
20
30
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40
CONTENT MARKETING BY TACTIC
Content Marketing Usage in the UK
100
(by Tactic)
90% 90%
 As with their peers in North America
85% 83%
78%
80
74% 74%
69%
52%
44%
41% 40%
Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Trends –
Content Marketing Institute/Direct Marketing Association UK
5
25%
15%
Games/Gamification
22%21%
Podcasts
25%
Virtual Conferences
31% 29%
Licensed/Syndicated Content
33% 33%
eBooks
Mobile Apps
Webinars/ Webcasts
Mobile Content
Print Magazines
Infographics
Branded Content Tools
Microsites
White Papers
Research Reports
Videos
Articles on Other Websites
In-person Events
Blogs
Case Studies
eNewsletters
0
Social Media–Other than Blogs
20
Articles on Your Website
35%
Books
40
Print Newsletters
47% % %
45 45
Digital Magazines
54%
Annual Reports
60
and Australia:
m UK B2C content marketers use more mobile apps, mobile content, and print magazines/newsletters than their B2B counterparts do;
m UK B2B marketers use more case studies, white papers, webinars/
webcasts, and research reports than their B2C counterparts do.
 UK and Australian B2C marketers use
mobile apps and mobile content more
often than their North American B2C
peers do.
TACTIC EFFECTIVENESS
Effectiveness Ratings of Tactics
Percentage of Respondents that Consider the Following Tactics Effective
United Kingdom
North America
Australia
Case Studies
63%
Research Reports
56%
59%
66%
 Whilst UK marketers overall say case
62%
59%
62%
eNewsletters
61%
In-person Events
Webinars/Webcasts
76%
60%
42%
60%
60%
54%
 UK B2B marketers rank case studies as
59%
44%
most effective (72%), whilst their B2C
peers cite eNewsletters (71%).
58%
58%
56%
55%
White Papers
Digital Magazines
42%
Social Media Content
57%
46%
54%
53%
44%
(Other than Blogs)
Microsites
49%
52%
57%
50%
49%
48%
Articles on Other Websites
50%
Articles on Your Website
47%
0
10
20
30
40
studies are most effective, North
American (67%) and Australian
marketers (76%) cite in-person events.
51%
Videos
Mobile Content
67%
61%
60%
47%
Mobile Apps
50
54%
60
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68%
67%
70
80
SOCIAL MEDIA & CONTENT MARKETING GROWTH TRENDS
Percentage of UK Marketers that
Use Various Social Media Platforms
to Distribute Content
82%
Twitter
LinkedIn
78%
Facebook
76%
 B2B and B2C content marketers in the
57%
YouTube
UK and Australia — along with B2C
marketers in North America — use an
average of four social media platforms
to distribute content, whereas B2B
marketers in North America use five.
33%
Google+
Pinterest
24%
17% SlideShare
13% Flickr
12% Vimeo
 UK B2B marketers use LinkedIn (87%)
7% Tumblr
the most, whereas their B2C peers use
Facebook (91%) the most. The same
is true with B2B and B2C marketers in
North America and Australia.
6% Instagram
4% Foursquare
4% StumbleUpon
2% Quora
2% Other
0
20
40
60
80
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100
ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS FOR CONTENT MARKETING
UK marketers cite brand awareness
as their top content marketing goal.
Organizational Goals for
Content Marketing in the UK
78%
Customer Acquisition
75%
Engagement
71%
Customer Retention/Loyalty 69%
Lead Generation
63%
Website Traffic
63%
Thought Leadership 54%
Sales
38%
Lead Management/Nurturing 34%
Brand Awareness
0
10 20 30
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
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 Both UK B2B and B2C marketers cite
brand awareness as their top goal.
 In general, UK marketers have similar
goals to North American and Australian
marketers.
MEASUREMENT CRITERIA FOR CONTENT MARKETING SUCCESS
UK marketers most often use website traffic
to measure content marketing success.
Measurement Criteria for
Content Marketing Success in the UK
62%
Social Media Sharing 48%
Sales Lead Quality 47%
SEO Ranking
45%
Website Traffic
 B2B and B2C content marketers —
no matter whether they’re from the
UK, North America, or Australia —
consistently rank website traffic as
their top measurement criterion.
Qualitative Feedback from Customers 42%
42%
Time Spent on Website 40%
Sales Lead Quantity 40%
Direct Sales
Increased Customer Loyalty 30%
Inbound Links
 Increased customer loyalty is more
29%
Readership/Subscribers 29%
Cross-selling
20%
Benchmark Lift of Company Awareness 20%
Benchmark Lift of Product/Service Awareness
9%
Cost Savings 5%
Other 5%
None 3%
17%
Affiliate Sales
0
10 20 30
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
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important to UK and North American
B2C marketers than it is to their B2B
peers; the opposite is true in Australia.
BUDGET
Overall, 64% of UK marketers plan to increase their
content marketing budget over the next 12 months.
Content Marketing Spending
in the UK (Over Next 12 Months)
 64% of UK marketers plan to increase
Decrease
3%
Unsure
7%
Remain the
Same
24%
Increase
49%
Significantly
Increase
15%
Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Trends –
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their content marketing spend; more
B2B marketers (72%) say they will
increase spend versus their B2C peers
(45%).
 Overall, UK marketers expect to
increase their spending more than their
North American (54%) and Australian
(61%) peers do.
BUDGET
On average, 27% of marketing budgets in the UK
are allocated to content marketing.
Total Marketing Budget Spent
on Content Marketing in the UK
39%
Micro (Fewer than 10 Employees)
UK B2B marketers allocate a higher
percentage of budget to content
marketing (29%) than their B2C
counterparts (24%) do.
33%
Small (10-99 Employees)
Midsize (100-999 Employees) 18%
Large (1000+ Employees) 20%
0
 Overall, UK (27%) and North American
27%
Overall
10
20
30
40
50
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 Just as in North America and Australia,
60
(31%) companies allocate a higher
percentage of budget to content
marketing than Australian (25%)
companies do.
INSOURCING VS. OUTSOURCING OF CONTENT CREATION
On average, 55% of UK companies outsource
content creation.
Insourcing vs. Outsourcing
of Content Creation in the UK
content creation more often than their
B2B peers (43%) do.
45%
In-House Only
Outsourced Only
4%
51%
Both
0
 UK B2C marketers (82%) outsource
10
20
30
40
50
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 Overall, UK marketers (55%) outsource
60
70
content more often than their North
American (45%) peers do, but not
as often as their Australian (57%)
peers do.
INSOURCING VS. OUTSOURCING OF CONTENT CREATION
Midsize companies in the UK are most likely
to outsource content creation.
Percentage of Companies that
Outsource Content Creation in the UK
(by Size)
Micro (Fewer than 10 Employees)
 Just as in North America and Australia,
26%
35%
Small (10-99 Employees)
79%
Midsize (100-999 Employees)
75%
Large (1000+ Employees)
55%
Average
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Trends –
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70
80
larger companies (100+ employees)
in the UK are more likely to outsource
content creation than smaller
companies are.
SEGMENTATION
Most UK marketers tailor their content.
How UK Organizations
Tailor Content
Industry Trends
55%
Company Characteristics
54%
Competitor’s Content
0
None
6%
Other
5%
10
20
 88% of UK B2C marketers tailor their
31%
content in at least one way – this is
more often than their North American
(85%) B2C peers do, but not as often as
their Australian (97%) B2C peers do.
17%
30
40
50
60
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content in at least one way – this is
more often than their North American
(91%) and Australian (88%) B2B
peers do.
41%
Stage in the Buying Cycle
Personalized Content Preferences
 96% of UK B2B marketers tailor their
56%
Profile of Individual Decision Makers
70
80
CONTENT MARKETING CHALLENGES
Producing enough content is the top challenge
cited by UK content marketers.
Challenges that UK
Content Marketers Face
Producing Enough Content 57%
Producing the Kind of Content that Engages
Producing a Variety of Content 39%
49%
Inability to Measure Content Effectiveness 38%
Lack of Integration Across Marketing 35%
Lack of Budget 33%
Lack of Knowledge, Training, and Resources 30%
Lack of Buy-in/Vision 21%
Finding Trained Content Marketing Professionals
0
10 20 30
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
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Content Marketing Institute/Direct Marketing Association UK
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12%
 UK B2B marketers cite producing
enough content as a challenge (65%)
more often than their B2C peers
(55%) do.
 Whilst B2C marketers are less
challenged than their B2B peers are
with producing enough content, they
are more challenged in every other
area shown here.
 Producing the kind of content that
engages and producing enough
content are universal challenges for
UK, North American, and Australian
marketers alike.
CONTENT MARKETING CHALLENGES
Biggest Content Marketing
Challenge for UK Companies
Producing Enough Content
 UK B2B marketers cite producing
21%
Producing the Kind of Content that Engages
Lack of Budget
19%
16%
Lack of Buy-in/Vision
7%
Lack of Integration Across Marketing
Producing a Variety of Content
 Australian marketers are more
7%
Inability to Measure Content Effectiveness
5%
4%
Finding Trained Content Marketing Professionals
10
20
30
40
3%
50
Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Trends –
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challenged by lack of buy-in/vision
(13%) than their UK (7%) and North
American (8%) peers are; otherwise,
the challenges among the three are
fairly similar.
6%
Lack of Knowledge, Training, and Resources
0
enough content as their biggest
challenge, whereas their B2C peers cite
producing the kind of content
that engages.
60
OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS
39% of UK marketers believe they are effective
at content marketing.
How UK Marketers Rate the
Effectiveness of Their Organization’s
Use of Content Marketing
7%
32%
5
4
3
Very Effective
45%
11%
2
1
10 20 30
3%
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Trends –
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B2C marketers (33%) believe they are
“effective” or “very effective” at content
marketing (defined as an answer of 4 or
5 on a scale of 1 to 5).
 UK marketers rank themselves highest
Not At All Effective
0
 More UK B2B marketers (41%) than
in terms of effectiveness (39%) when
compared with their North American
(37%) and Australian (29%) peers.
OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS
Profile of a best-in-class UK content marketer.
Comparison of Most Effective UK Content Marketers
with Least Effective UK Content Marketers
Most Effective
Overall/Average
Least Effective
Percentage of marketing budget
allocated to content marketing
41%
27%
18%
Average number of tactics used
14
13
9
5
4
3
Plan to increase content marketing
spend in the next year
72%
64%
71%
Tailor content to profile of
decision maker
63%
56%
57%
Challenged with producing
engaging content
35%
49%
72%
Challenged with producing
enough content
49%
57%
66%
Average number of social platforms used
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OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS
Profile of a best-in-class UK content marketer.
Just as in North America and Australia, best-in-class UK content marketers,
when compared with their peers:
 Allocate a greater share of their marketing budgets to content marketing
 Use more content marketing tactics
 Use more social media platforms to distribute content
 Tailor content more often to specific personas/decision makers
 Are slightly more challenged with producing enough content, but far less
challenged with producing engaging content
19
DEMOGRAPHICS
Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends was produced by Content
Marketing Institute (CMI) and the Direct Marketing Association UK (DMA). The survey was mailed
electronically to a sample of marketers from among members, subscribers, and partner lists
of CMI and DMA. Special thanks to MarketingProfs for their participation in the North American
comparisons used in this report and to the Press Association for additional survey distribution in
the UK.
A total of 190 participants responded from UK companies (including 128 B2B companies and 34 B2C
companies) during the time period of August 2012 through January 2013, representing a range of
industries, functional areas, and company sizes.
Industry Classification, UK
Size of Company, UK
(by Employees)
Micro
Other
27%
Consulting
Business
Services
Advertising/
Marketing
Publishing/
Media
5% 5%
9%
6%
Nonprofit/
Fundraising
Internet/Online
Retail Trade
Services
Distribution Software
Banking/Accounting/
Financial
20
29%
16%
Midsize
(100-999
Employees)
21%
Other
Consultant
General
Management
4%
5%
5%
Content
Creation/Management
6%
Small
4%
4%
4%
5%
31%
Large
(1000+ Employees)
(Fewer than
10 Employees)
Job Title/Function, UK
(10-99 Employees)
34%
Marketing
Administration/Support
6%
Sales/Business
Management
Marketing/Advertising/
Communications/PR
7%
Corporate
Management/Owner
22%
45%
About the Content Marketing Institute:
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) is the leading global content marketing education and training organization.
CMI teaches enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multi-channel storytelling.
CMI’s Content Marketing World event is the largest content marketing-focused event. CMI also produces the
quarterly magazine Chief Content Officer, and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some
of the best-known brands in the world. Get more content marketing resources at ContentMarketingInstitute.com.
CMI is a division of Z Squared Media, a 2012 Inc. 500 company. View all content marketing research from CMI.
About the Direct Marketing Association UK:
The Direct Marketing Association UK (DMA) is Europe’s largest professional body representing the direct marketing
industry. We have a large in-house team of specialists offering everything from free legal advice and government
lobbying on direct marketing issues to research papers and best practice.
As well as being at the forefront of developments in digital and direct marketing, we continue to lead the way
in traditional direct channels. That’s why the DMA is such a great platform for sharing expertise and why DMA
membership is synonymous with better business.
Survey Distribution Partner
About the Press Association:
The Press Association is the UK’s leading provider of multi-platform content, serving newspapers, broadcasters,
online publishers, businesses, and public-sector organisations. Our Content For Marketing service uses the
knowledge and experience of 145 years of content creation to deliver trusted, bespoke solutions to some of
the biggest B2C and B2B brands worldwide. Our specialist journalists, digital producers, photographers, and
video teams create unique, quality news feeds, social campaigns, long-form articles, widgets, apps, blogs, video
packages, and award-winning infographics.
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